Dawes — Were All Gonna Die (September 16, 2016)♣√♣ Dawes are performing a record release show on September 22 at the Basement East in Nashville, TN. The show starts at 7pm (doors at 6pm) and is an 18+ event.Origin: Los Angeles, CAGenres: Folk rock, indie folk, indie rockAlbum release: September 16, 2016Record Label: HUB Records II LLCGenre: Indie RockDuration: 46:22Tracks:01. One Of Us 4:5402. We’re All Gonna Die 5:0503. Roll With The Punches 4:2504. Picture Of A Man 4:2005. Less Than Five Miles Away 4:5706. Roll Tide 5:2807. When The Tequila Runs Out 4:4508. For No Good Reason 4:2109. Quitter 3:5210. As If By Design 4:15Producer: Blake MillsMembers:√ Taylor Goldsmith, guitar & vocals√ Griffin Goldsmith, drums√ Wylie Gelber, bass√ Lee Pardini, keyboardsPast members:√ Alex Casnoff, keyboards√ Tay Strathairn, keyboardsCredits:♣ Clara Balzary Band Photo♣ Jason Boesel Composer♣ Louis Eisner Logo Design♣ Wylie Gelber Bass♣ Gerry Gilhool Technician♣ Griffin Goldsmith Drums, Percussion, Vocals♣ Taylor Goldsmith Composer, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Vocals♣ Jim James Vocals♣ Greg Koller Engineer, Mixing♣ Holly Laessig Vocals♣ Joseph Lorge Assistant Engineer♣ Blake MillsBass, Composer, Glockenspiel, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Slide Guitar, Vocals♣ Rob Moose Strings♣ Lee Pardini Clavinet, Piano, Vocals♣ Patricia Sullivan Mastering♣ Alex Tenta Design, Layout♣ Merrilee Thomas Cover Photo♣ Nate Walcott Trumpet♣ Jess Wolfe VocalsDescription:√ Dawes’ highly anticipated new album We’re All Gonna Die will be released September 16 via the band’s own HUB Records. Of the album, Taylor Goldsmith (guitar, vocals) explains, “Pretty much every song on this record explores a difficult situation and tries to find a way to find the good in it, or at least remind yourself that it’s not always that big of a deal. After all, as scary as it is, we are all gonna die.” The album was produced by Grammy nominated producer Blake Mills (Alabama Shakes) and includes backing vocals from Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Brittany Howard of The Alabama Shakes, Mandy Moore, Will Oldham, and Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius. Dawes has toured extensively playing headline shows worldwide and major festival appearances including Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Lollapalooza and Newport Folk Festival. Recently, they have toured with My Morning Jacket, Bob Dylan, Mumford and Sons, Conor Oberst, and Jackson Browne. In the fall of 2014, Goldsmith contributed to Lost On The River: The New Basement Tapes, an album project which found collaborators Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops), Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons) and producer T Bone Burnett writing and creating music for a treasure trove of recently discovered lyrics handwritten by Bob Dylan in 1967 during the period that generated the recording of the legendary Basement Tapes. Fellow collaborator Jim James proclaims about We’re All Gonna Die, “The record sounds so fresh — yet fills me with a strange nostalgia for things that haven’t happened yet...I hear it at the beach and blasting out of car windows on future summer nights...easily having become a natural part of people’s lives.”AllMusic Review by Matt Collar;Score: ****½√ The fifth studio album from Dawes, 2016’s cheekily titled We’re All Gonna Die, finds the rootsy Los Angeles outfit pushing its melodic, literate roots rock in an artsier, more sonically experimental direction. Following up the group’s engaging 2015 effort All Your Favorite Bands, We’re All Gonna Die feels like the beginning of a creative transformation where the band begins to shed all genre constraints and influences, emerging as its own fantastically musical creature. It brings to mind the early~2000s metamorphosis of Wilco, the most obvious antecedent to Dawes’ own thinking~man’s folk~rock aesthetic. Still centered on lead singer/songwriter Taylor Goldsmith, Dawes take all the poignant twang that made up their previous work and imbue it with a tactile, delicately experimental vibe on a set of songs that are as imaginative and catchy as ever.√ Some of the credit for the band’s auspicious phonic shift here must go to former Dawes guitarist Blake Mills, who returned to handle production duties. With his knack for rootsy authenticity and ear for indie rock explorations, Mills’ approach brings to mind the similarly inclined work of producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake with artists like Sheryl Crow and Ron Sexsmith. However, rather than contriving something arch and impenetrable, Dawes’ songs here are wry, often humorous, and filled with an open~armed joy for life. That joy is reflected in the band’s unexpected musical choices. Built around a clipped, low~end electric guitar riff, the leadoff track, “One of Us,” finds Goldsmith layering his voice in lo~fi microphone fuzz, deftly undercutting the song’s sparkling, infectious chorus. Similarly, the band contrasts a booming distorted bass riff against ‘70s wah~wah guitar on the euphoric, soul~inflected “When the Tequila Runs Out.” Elsewhere, as on the the vibrantly tropical “Picture of a Man,” Dawes frame Goldsmith’s vocals against a ringing church organ and a kinetic layer of insect~sounding percussion and harmonized backing vocals.√ All told, the album vibrates with a dichotomous energy that somehow brings to mind an improbable mix of Tom Petty, Paul Simon, and Electric Light Orchestra. And it’s an energy that flows from Goldsmith’s lyrics as he finds layers of metaphysical irony and eye~winking depth to unveil in his steady, warm croon. As Goldsmith sings on “As If by Design,” “The stars were just the holes punched in the shoebox/That gives a creature all the air he needs to breathe/As if every constellation was just a form of ventilation/From a captor too enormous to conceive.” And later, “Every day getting a little more acquainted with the riddles until I’m looking for them everywhere I go.” With We’re All Gonna Die, Dawes have crafted an album rife with riddles and musical poetry, whose meaning may take a few listens to completely grab you. However, when it does finally hit you, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Dawes have opened a door into the cosmos.ReviewBy Jonathan Bernstein / Score: ***½√ On their four previous albums, Dawes were SoCal country~rock revivalists. Now, they’ve slicked up their Seventies ideal, with a big FM~radio sound built on string sections, processed vocals, glockenspiels and vintage synths. Singer~guitarist Taylor Goldsmith is too nice a guy to really step into the role of mirror~shade cynic; he calls L.A. an “air~conditioned town where you live life hunched over your phone.” But the band’s breezy harmonies (aided by pals from Jim James to Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard) on songs like “Picture of a Man” and “No Good Reason” are a perfect complement to his gentle malaise.:: http://www.rollingstone.com/ReviewBY BEN KAYE ON SEPTEMBER 07, 2016, 8:09PM√ Things are shaping up to be very different with the fifth album from Dawes, We’re All Gonna Die. For one, it’s the band’s first time working with Blake Mills as a producer since he left the group back when they were Simon Dawes. For another, it’s the first time they’ve released a record in back to back years, having just dropped All Your Favorite Bands last summer. Most apparently, however, the LP sees the band making the largest sonic shift of their career.√ We got the first taste of this with lead single “When the Tequila Runs Out”, and now the title track confirms that this is a new type of Dawes record. There’s a noticeably more blue~eyed soul wrapped around the outfit’s vintage Americana stylings. Heavier, slower notes are lifted high by twinkling strings and Taylor Goldsmith’s vocals, even as he sings brooding lines like, “How can it be that bad/ If we’re all gonna die?”√ Even Goldsmith himself admits it’s not your typical Dawes song, as he told The FADER he began writing the song on GarageBand. “At first it was just a means of amusing myself and I wasn’t really taking any of it too seriously,” he said. “It definitely didn’t sound like a Dawes song. But once the melody started falling into place and the words followed along, I started to think otherwise.” He went on to add, “We weren’t sure if this song was gonna fit with the rest of the material at first, but once we started playing it on our respective instruments rather hearing them programmed on a computer, not only did the track feel essential but it really defined the mood of the rest of the record.”√ http://consequenceofsound.net/Website: http://dawestheband.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DawesthebandFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DawesthebandDiscography:√ August 18, 2009 North Hills (ATO Records) #23 US Heat√ June 7, 2011 (US)/September 5, 2011 (Europe) Nothing Is Wrong (ATO Records, Loose Music) #5 US Folk, #18 US Rock√ April 9, 2013 Stories Don’t End (HUB Records) #3 US Folk, #9 US Rock / US: 65,000 US Sales√ June 2, 2015 All Your Favorite Bands (HUB Records) #1 US Folk, #4 US Rock, #37 US√ September 16, 2016 Were All Gonna Die (HUB Records) Live:√ November 29, 2013 Stripped Down at Grimey’s (Hub Records) ♣√♣♣√♣_______________________________________________♣√♣♣√♣